Garden Walls Middlesbrough | Brick and Stone

Example image: a red-brick raised bed wall with a stone coping on a sandstone patio

Types of garden wall

Low patio walls. A course or several of brick or stone around the edge of a patio, often with a coping you can sit on.
Raised beds. Brick, block or stone walls filled with soil, which are easy on the back and add structure to the garden.
Retaining walls. Walls that hold back soil where the garden has been levelled, for example to make room for a flat patio on a slope.
Dwarf walls and garden dividers. Low walls that separate the patio from the lawn or mark out a seating area.

Walls are usually built to match the house brick or the patio stone, finished with a coping that throws water off the top.

What goes into a good wall

A concrete footing below the wall, wide and deep enough for the height and the ground. On clay soils the footing needs to go deeper.
Straight, level courses with properly filled joints.
A damp-proof course and coping so water does not soak down through the wall and cause frost damage.
Drainage behind retaining walls. Soil holding water pushes hard on a wall. A free-draining backfill and weep holes let that water out. Taller retaining walls need proper design, and we'll tell you if yours does.

Example image: a buff-brick retaining wall with a stone coping beside a grey sandstone patio at a detached house in Nunthorpe

Planning and boundaries

You can usually build a garden wall without planning permission if it is no more than 1 metre high next to a road used by vehicles (including the pavement alongside it), or 2 metres high elsewhere. Listed buildings and conservation areas have their own rules. If the wall is on or right next to a boundary with a neighbour, the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 may apply, so talk to your neighbour early.

Walls as part of a bigger job

Most walls go in alongside a new patio, steps or a levelled garden. Quoting it all together means the levels, materials and drainage are planned as one, and it is usually more efficient than doing each part separately.

Questions people ask

Do I need planning permission for a garden wall?

Usually not, as long as it is no more than 1m high next to a road used by vehicles, or 2m elsewhere, and the house is not listed. Check with Middlesbrough Council if you are unsure.

Brick or stone?

Brick that matches the house usually looks the most natural. Stone suits natural stone patios and older properties. We can bring samples to the site visit.

Can you repair an old garden wall?

Often, yes. Leaning, cracked or crumbling walls can sometimes be repointed or partly rebuilt, though a wall that is leaning because of a poor footing usually needs taking down and rebuilding.